A big week!

The past few days have held some big milestone moments for lil Miss Jillien!

LAUGHTER: She had a day with 3 major laughs - her first ones that were true, "hearty" laughs! Her Daddy is (of course) the one that caused the laughs although he didn't get to hear the first one. He pulled into the driveway and we opened up the front window to see him pulling in. Jillien was looking everywhere outside besides where he was standing. To HELP her pay attention to him, Stephen jumped up on the hood of his car and smiled at her and she just chuckled her lil heart out. She really just thought that was hilarious.

ROLLING: She has been rolling to one side or another for quite a while but still hadn't mastered the rolling over fully thing. Today she did! She did it over and over again when I put her on her tummy. Tummy to back, happy and squealing most of the way! Of course, when I got the video camera on her, she took longer and/or fussed about it. Figures!

STUDIO PICTURES: We went to JCPenney on Saturday and did her 3 month pictures. We figured we needed to hurry up and do that since she will be 4 months in 10 days! She took some Easter pictures with a LIVE bunny and all of it was fun... although she liked eating the pink tulle.

She is a total goofball and we love it!

Monday's shopping

Although today is Friday, I thought I’d go ahead and share Monday’s shopping trip highlights!

Isn’t a 3 month old a valid excuse for some delay?

Groceries total this trip: $105.90, Savings = $37.30 (Tax was only $1.38)

My total was a bit higher than past weeks but I stocked up on some things that I got good deals on (trash bags, papertowels, laundry detergent, cat litter, mac n cheese). Plus I “splurged” on some Sara Lee sandwich buns, avocados, my favorite store tortillas, etc.

• I use Purex “Free & Clear” liquid laundry detergent for ours and Jillien’s clothes. Although I had an almost full container, I bought 2 more for a total of $4.99… sale and buy one get one free coupon!

• Bag of Goldfish – sale & coupon - $.91

• Bag of large No Yolk Egg noodles – sale & coupon - $.87

• Super huge box of Cheerios on sale $2.75

• 1 lb strawberries were on sale for $2.49 – YUM!

• Digiorno 200 calorie pizza – FREE! With mailed coupon

• Kraft 2% shredded cheese with $1.00 off coupon - $1.34

• Big box of Glad flex trash bags - $3.44 – Target coupon $1.00, Manufacturer coupon $.55

Meal Plan

Monday started a new round of meal planning.

Here is March 1-14:

• Chicken Alfredo w/garlic toast
• Taco Soup w/sweet cornbread
• Spaghetti w/meat sauce
• Chicken Bowtie (pesto)
• Quesadillas
• Mac n sausage
• BBQ ribs/sandwiches w/fries
• Chicken Parmesan w/garlic toast
• Meatloaf
• Breakfast for dinner - bacon, eggs, toast
• Crescent bake
• Pork chops w/pasta, veggie
• Chicken sandwich w/fries
• Stuffed shells w/sauce

Weekend breakfast treats (recipes below):

• Bread machine cinnamon rolls
• Sausage balls

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls (Thanks Money Saving Mom!)
Dough:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm milk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten plus 2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups flour (Add a bit more if dough seems too wet after first few minutes of kneading in the bread machine.)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons bread machine yeast
Filling (this can be doubled if you like extra filling):
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Icing:
1 teaspoon milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
4 tablespoons (or less) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
Put the dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and run on the dough cycle. After the dough cycle is finished, roll the dough into a large rectangle and spread it with 2 Tablespoons melted butter and 2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.
Roll up and cut into 10-15 rolls and place in two greased round cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until browned. Spread the icing on as soon as they come out of the oven.
You can also cover the unbaked rolls with plastic wrap, stick them in the refrigerator overnight, and then bake in the morning.

Sausage balls:
2 cups Bisquick
10 oz. shredded cheese
1 pound sausage
Put all ingredients into the bowl. Be willing to use your hands to mix it all together well. Make sure the ingredients are evenly mixed throughout your created blob.
Roll the mixture into small balls about the size of little golf balls place them on a cookie sheet or in a glass baking dish with a little room. You may get 2 batches out of this recipe depending on the size you form.
Bake the sausage balls at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. The sausage balls should be lightly browned.
You can serve shortly after or store in an airtight container in the fridge and easily heat them again in the stove or microwave!

Bows & Things

An album of the bows I've been working on:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=179695&id=709685374&l=ef840cf780

Enjoying it and loving trying them all on the cutest lil bow-wearer in my book! :)
Let me know if you see one you like or want to see a certain style of color!

More soon on today's grocery shopping trip!